Comments on: Too early to determine Hughes’s ultimate role

By: Jeffrey

Jeffrey — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 07:10:58 +0000

With Halladay, Lee, and Beckett available as free agents before the 2011 season I wouldn’t be surprised if Hughes bounced between roles or moved back to the pen if a guy like Halladay were signed.

A rotation of these guys would be scary good.
Halladay
Sabathia
Burnett
Joba
Hughes

Then Hughes is either the #5 starter or 8th inning reliever.

By: leokitty

leokitty — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 06:17:04 +0000

Extremely late but giving up a 1st round pick to sign a Type A relief pitcher strikes me as a dumb move for the team to make.

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:37:49 +0000

I’ll give you that, but he is pretty clear that it’s not a general rule. He’s only applying that if there was an injury the previous season. Hughes had two consecutive shortened seasons for injuries, then one shortened one due to reduced roles. You’re really stretching Verducci’s rule to apply a career high to Hughes now.

By: pete

pete — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:35:04 +0000

Question: ARE YOU READY FOR MONDAY NIGHT REHABILITATION????
Answer: Yes!

By: pete

pete — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:29:23 +0000

he didn’t have a good secondary pitched developed by the time he was 25. Chances were, at that point, he wasn’t ever going to be able to develop the necessary repertoire for a starter.

By: Hesky

Hesky — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:28:49 +0000

Verducci gives an estimate. The yanks have teams of doctors n rsearchers on this

By: Hesky

Hesky — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:27:08 +0000

I’d like to have this problem every year with a new pitcher

By: Pete

Pete — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:16:41 +0000

tommiesmith, meet tinyURL

tinyURL, meet tommiesmith.

By: Amol

Amol — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:15:19 +0000

Well, Rivera was a few years older than Hughes and Chamberlain when they moved him to the bullpen. So, even though he never got that many major league starts, I don’t think it was a missed opportunity. Indeed, at that time it would’ve been hard to see Rivera as being a successful reliever for more than a few years, since he had yet to develop the cutter, let alone a great starter.

By: tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside

tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:10:01 +0000

Also Verducci saying it himself, same article, emphasis mine:

Here's the way I track it: Find major league pitchers 25-and-under who broke the 30-inning rule. In some cases a pitcher's innings the previous season may have been artificially depressed, such as by injury, so I'll use his professional high for the baseline, or, in the case of a recent draftee like Kennedy, his college workload. All innings count (minors, majors, postseason).

It's generally the previous year. But it's not strictly the previous year. Verducci allows for the previous high-water mark to be used as the baseline rather than only the previous year.